A system for producing semiconductor components provides a method for combining the semiconductor chip mounting method and the semiconductor chip wire bonding step when assembling a semiconductor housing. For this purpose, a conventional semiconductor chip mounting device and a semiconductor chip wire bonding device are integrated in a simplified, common machine system. A computer-monitored television camera system mounted independently observes and monitors the working steps of the semiconductor chip mounting process and the wire bonding process using feedback processes. A drawback is the use of a conventional singulating apparatus with a vacuum pipette, for example, as is known for large-area semiconductor chips. Vacuum pipettes of this type require a semiconductor chip to have a minimum surface area in order to be singulated, since otherwise the semiconductor chip cannot be picked up by the vacuum pipette and fed to a mounting station. Singulating and conveying of semiconductor chips with a surface area smaller than this minimum surface area is not possible.
However, there is a demand, in particular, in radiofrequency technology, to construct discrete RF semiconductor components, i.e., RF PIN diodes, in which the semiconductor chips are at least an order of magnitude smaller than the abovementioned minimum surface area required for semiconductor chips of this type to be handled in a singulating station of a semiconductor wafer divided into semiconductor chips.
An apparatus and a method which allow semiconductor chips with a surface area an order of magnitude smaller than the minimum surface area of semiconductor chips of conventional singulating apparatuses to be picked up and fed to a mounting device is desirable, for example, such that it is possible for radiofrequency semiconductor components and RF PIN diodes for radiofrequency applications to be installed in suitable radiofrequency housings at low cost.